There's a brand-new feature on the Change.gov web site called Citizen's Briefing Book.

From the main page:

"Share your ideas on any issue facing the new administration, then rate or comment on other ideas. The best rated ideas will rise to the top -- and be gathered into a Citizen's Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama after he is sworn in."

So, go to Citizen's Briefing Book, log in, and let the administration know if you have an idea to share, and vote on the ideas of others.

Isn't change wonderful?

Hat tip to This Week With Barack Obama blog for posting this.

Appears some people find it extremely difficult just . . . to go out for a hot dog . . .

DC's Mayor Fenty took the President-Elect to Ben's Chili Bowl today because, well, he loves chili!

Per Yahoo News . . .

After Obama's motorcade wandered through the U street district, passing the African-American Civil War Memorial and a flee market selling shirts that bear his face, he and Fenty surprised the restaurant around lunchtime. Patrons shrieked with delight and surprise as they saw his face. A mother blushed as Obama held her baby in his arms. The president-elect and the mayor moved slowly through the restaurant's crowded rooms, shaking hands and getting pictures taken with patrons.

Still, they came there to eat. "Where the food at?" he finally asked the counter staff, drawing laughs from them and nearby patrons.

He and Fenty ordered a house specialty, a Chili Half-Smoke — a quarter-pound half pork and beef smoked sausage on a steamed bun with mustard, onions and chili sauce — along with a big helping of some cheese fries.

They found a small table. They had the popular food. They even chatted it up with nearby customers at their tables. But something was still missing: the shredded cheese. Obama yelled for some — "not the Velveeta" kind, he said — and it was quickly delivered.

 

I normally get annoyed when the most mundane events in the lives of the great and powerful become front-page news because there are certainly grave and more important issues that deserve attention.  The national obsession regarding the Obama's obtaining a puppy, for example, is a bit much.

But I post this for two main reasons.

One, you and I (everyone reading this) can hop down to a Ben's Chili Bowl any time we want and enjoy our meal in relative peace.  Try, for a moment, envisioning NOT having that freedom!!  This, to the Obamas, will be something of a luxury for at least the next eight years.

And two, they ordered a hot dog.  How American and ordinary is that?  And what did he say when he wanted more cheese? 

"Obama yelled for some — "not the Velveeta" kind, he said — and it was quickly delivered."

Not to disparage Velveeta, I'm sure.  This type of cheese is better for dips and sauces, not necessarily shredded over a hot dogs.  Cheddar would be my choice as well.  Any ordinary person reading this should realize something fundamentally important about this.  He knew the difference!  He's obviously had Velveeta!

As the new administration comes together, with mere days remaining till the Inauguration, I've read some folks are beginning to feel there's a kind of "business as usual" atmosphere, some talk of being sold out, some afraid we've all been lied to, that nothing's ever going to change.

If the man will, first of all, pop in to a Ben's Chili Bowl for a good, true-blue American hot dog, and also knows his cheese . . . this is highly suggestive that . . . he's an "average" American with the knowledge and experience of most "average" Americans.

President-Elect Obama likes chili dogs . . . without Velveeta.  Hope for a brighter future just went up a couple notches.

Here's some more photos from This Week . . .

Just had to share this . . .

Economists appraise Bhutan's happiness model

(12-04) 04:00 PST Thimphu, Bhutan -- In the thick of a global financial crisis, many economists have come to this Himalayan kingdom to study a unique economic policy called Gross National Happiness, based on Buddhist principles.

 

When considering economic development, policymakers here take into account respect for all living things, nature, community participation and the need for balance between work, sleep and reflection or meditation.

 

"Happiness is very serious business," Bhutan Prime Minister Jigme Thinley said. "The dogma of limitless productivity and growth in a finite world is unsustainable and unfair for future generations."

Read the remainder of the article . . . Here






[Side Note:  I just read that the newly crowned King of Bhutan, H. M. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who is a mere 28 years old, spent much of his life in Andover, Massachusetts.  Aley and I lived only a few miles from Andover, which is northwest of Boston.]

This is really cool.  A mashup of all 44 US Presidents, one morphing into the other, from George Washington to Barack Obama.

Have we come a long way in just over 200 Years, or what?

Not sure if this is a joke or not.  It appeared initially to be kinda fun! . . . which is what Gender Analyzer posted on their site . . .

"We created Genderanalyzer out of curiosity and fun. It uses Artificial Intelligence to determine if a homepage is written by a man or woman. Behind the scene, a text classifier hosted over at uClassify.com has been trained on blogs written by men and women. In our lab it seems to work pretty well, we want to see how it performs on the web! We hope you like it!"

So, to test this out I put in my own blog.  Not surprisingly, the analysis came back that there was an 83% probability the writer of the blog was male.

I then moved on to Aley.  The site didn't like her blog at all.  Received an error message . . . "Sorry, we can only classify web pages written in english" . . .

Hmmm?  Don't know what that's all about.  Also get this message on Morningstar, Siona, Deb, Starseed, Gemstar and others.

You see, what began as something interesting and fun . . . soon turned into an obsession!!!   Here are some other results for a few of my friends:

     Samme 90% male

     Ricky 66% male

     Ariela 78% male

     Bluewater 97% male

     Martha 89% male

     Donny 64% male

     Meenakshi 83% male

     C.G. 63% male

     Matthew 94% male

     Peggy J 82% male

I had to stop.  See the pattern?  I would expect our good friends Ricky and Donny to be where they are because they're very balanced.

But Bluewater?  And Samme, who really, really should take the title of Gentle Soul?

If, in fact, this site is not a joke, then an analysis of our individual blogs should lean female. 

Could find not one. 

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.  Aley received this as a forward in her e-mail and shared it with me.  And I'm sharing it with you . . .

"One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from Across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine looked at the man and said, 'Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The old man said, 'Okay', and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?'

The old man looked at the Marine and said, 'Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow, Sir.' "

I have other blog sites that I frequent.  I stopped posting on liberal blog sites long, long ago because my positions seemed to either antagonize or not reach people.  I have chosen instead to post here.  That is . . . till yesterday . . .

I read this post on Crooks and Liars.  The title says it all . . .

No Red America, No Blue America, Just One America

Crooks and Liars is a "liberal" blog.  But they posted this letter . . .

"I am a conservative who spent one evening responding to posts on your blog. I mentioned then that I would support Obama if he won, even though I was supporting McCain's campaign. I feel it was my duty to send my congratulations to our next president through you and your community, since I used your forum to enter into a spirited debate. I will honor my pledge to respect Obama as our American president. I certainly intend to exercise my first amendment rights to try to persuade him and others away from policies that I oppose, but I will be respectful of him and his office. I will also reprimand others who fail to show such respect.

I do not plan to return to this site, as I got so engaged in the vigorous debate that I lost track of time, and I missed saying prayers with my kids and tucking them in that night. We have added our new president to our prayer list. I assure you, we are not praying from a sense of self-interest. We only pray that he be granted the wisdom that is necessary to successfully execute his duties in a way that leads our country to greater peace and prosperity.

I believe it is un-American to wish ill upon anyone in order to gain some advantage. I want America to reach her greatest potential; therefore, I want Obama's presidency to be the most successful in history -- until the next president is elected, whichever party that person might represent, then the next president, and so on.

Who knows -- perhaps I'll end up voting for Obama in 2012. I will remain open to that possibility.

Please share this message with your community."

Whoa!  What's going on here?!?!?  As of this writing there are already 201 comments and the conversation is still going.  Yes, you read that right.  Liberals and Conservatives are . . . {{{GASP!}}} . . . actually having a conversation!

Buried in the comments of this blog was this (very lengthy, but excellent), originally posted in 2005 just after the 2004 presidential election, where liberals were still scratching our collective heads wondering what went wrong.

I had already read something quite similar to this before, but this was an excellent overview and helped bring things into perspective.  Liberals and Conservatives have two divergent perspectives which result in non-communication.

I'll only pull out a couple things, which are self-explanatory . . .

The Conservative Mind:

The Liberal Mind:



























Is it any wonder, then, we have failed miserably at understanding one another?  When Bush bombs a country back to the stone age, he's only doing his duty as Strict Father and authoritarian.  When liberals cry "foul!" we're perceived as weak.

The article ends with this . . .

There is a lot to promote about liberalism and the Negotiated Commitment model behind it. We take people as they are, rather than demanding that they fit themselves into an increasingly outdated set of roles. We face problems directly, rather than making people jump through hoops that may or may not be relevant. And so, for example, we ask: “Who is going to feed the child, teach the child, protect the child, and love the child?” rather than “Who is going to be the father and who is going to be the mother?”

The Negotiated Commitment model is tolerant by its nature. It recognizes the freedom of other people to negotiate their own commitments differently than we negotiate ours. In a country whose citizens have so many different backgrounds, and a world with so many cultures - each with its own notion of inherited obligations - such tolerance is a necessity.

We are committed to maintaining and extending the social safety net. We are committed to giving everyone an opportunity to succeed. We are committed to finding common ground with other countries and building a global consensus that works.

And, in spite of the cultural values that currently divide us from the working-class families of Kansas and Shawmut River and thousands of other communities around the nation, we remain allied with their economic interests. For some people that will never be enough, and we will never get their votes.

But many, given an accurate view of liberals and the values that motivate us, may come to see that we are not so scary, and that their differences with us can be bridged. And as the plutocratic agenda of the Right lets jobs continue to be lost, wages continue to stagnate, and the gap between rich and poor stretch ever wider, they may recall that the New Deal was not such a bad idea after all.

 

I felt compelled to post this for one reason:  Should we consider the possibility that this year's presidential campaign resulting in Tuesday's awe-inspiring and historic vote represent a paradigm shift not only between the two sexes and different races . . . but also between the two bitterly, bitterly divided philosophical camps in the US?

Can we actually have healing between the Right and the Left?

Has this decades-long, raging battle, per chance, reached its zenith? 

This morning I was writing a comment on my wife's blog which kept growing and growing . . . into a blog post . . .

Okay . . . the truth . . .

I have not always been proud of "my people".  "My people" being narrowly defined as white males.  We have . . . um? . . . a lot of skeletons in our closet.  Many of these skeletons, unfortunately, are quite embarrassing, to put it mildly.

This is why I could only shake my head in bewilderment over the furor Michelle Obama received when she evidently made a "gaffe" by stating she was proud of her country "for the first time".

Well, I won't go that far.  Perhaps she should have left off that "for the first time" part. 

We don't fully understand.  "We" being whites and males.  The best we can do is say we think we understand.  Some will attempt to cling to that inbred delusional feeling of superiority, of course.  I never went there in the first place, seeing discrimination for what it was and rejecting it.

Throughout this long campaign and yesterday's election, several glass ceilings were shattered.  We can finally put the American Civil War to rest, which ended in 1864.  We can move past that now.

The woman's suffrage movement begun in the late Eighteenth Century and which culminated with the right to vote granted in the early Twentieth Century can finally, at the dawn of the Twenty-First Century, be put behind us.

These are just the obvious.  Digging deeper and pondering this miraculous and practically instantaneous transformation will, I guarantee, produce more shattered glass from other ceilings.  The stranglehold of the white male is no more.

Good riddance.

I too watched as the Rev. Jesse Jackson openly wept for the whole world to see, unashamed and unapologetic.  He was one of countless others, across the planet, whose emotions overtook them.  I am a white male and I'm having something of a difficult time processing my feelings.  As I write this . . . I shed tears in a flood of emotion for the first time, the enormity of this change seeping in and being processed.

To every person of color and to every female . . . I wrap my arms around you as we all rejoice and shed great tears of joy.  I hold you tightly because try as hard as I may I cannot feel this change the way you do.  That does not mean I don't want to.  I do.

Today I am so proud to be an American.  This isn't the first time and I know it won't be the last. 

Wow!  This is an op-ed in the Washington Post penned by Eugene Robinson.  Growing up in the south where I witnessed "the other side" of discrimination and seeing the injustice . . . I couldn't agree more . . .

A New Kind of Pride

By Eugene Robinson

Tuesday, November 4, 2008; Page A17

 

Whoever wins this election, I understand what Barack Obama meant when he said his faith in the American people had been "vindicated" by his campaign's success. I understand what Michelle Obama meant, months ago, when she said she was "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life. Why should they be immune to the astonishment and vertigo that so many other African Americans are experiencing? Why shouldn't they have to pinch themselves to make sure they aren't dreaming, the way that I do?

I know there's a possibility that the polls are wrong. I know there's a possibility that white Americans, when push comes to shove, won't be able to bring themselves to elect a black man as president of the United States. But the spread in the polls is so great that the Bradley effect wouldn't be enough to make Obama lose; it would take a kind of "Dr. Strangelove effect" in which voters' hands developed a will of their own.

I'm being facetious but not unserious. In my gut, I know there's a chance that the first African American to make a serious run for the presidency will lose. But that is precisely what's new and, in a sense, unsettling: I'm talking about possibility, not inevitability.

For African Americans, at least those of us old enough to have lived through the civil rights movement, this is nothing short of mind-blowing. It's disorienting, and it makes me see this nation in a different light.

You see, I remember a time of separate and unequal schools, restrooms and water fountains -- a time when black people were officially second-class citizens. I remember moments when African Americans were hopeful and excited about the political process, and I remember other moments when most of us were depressed and disillusioned. But I can't think of a single moment, before this year, when I thought it was within the realm of remote possibility that a black man could be nominated for president by one of the major parties -- let alone that he would go into Election Day with a better-than-even chance of winning.

Let me clarify: It's not that I would have calculated the odds of an African American being elected president and concluded that this was unlikely; it's that I wouldn't even have thought about such a thing.

African Americans' love of country is deep, intense and abiding, but necessarily complicated. At the hour of its birth, the nation was already stained by the Original Sin of slavery. Only in the past several decades has legal racism been outlawed and casual racism been made unacceptable, at least in polite company. Millions of black Americans have managed to pull themselves up into mainstream, middle-class affluence, but millions of others remain mired in poverty and dysfunction.

A few black Americans broke through into the highest echelons of American society. Oprah Winfrey became the most powerful woman in the entertainment industry by appealing to an audience that is mostly white. Richard Parsons, Stanley O'Neal and others became alpha males in the lily-white world of Wall Street. Through superhuman skill and unbending will, Tiger Woods came to dominate a sport long seen as emblematic of white privilege.

Along came Barack Obama, a young man with an unassailable résumé and a message of post-racial transformation. Initially, a big majority of African Americans lined up behind his major opponent in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton. The reason was simple: In the final analysis, white Americans weren't going to vote for the black guy. Better to go with the safe alternative.

But an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That's the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated. For me, it was the moment when the utterly impossible became merely unlikely. That's a fundamental change, and it launched a sequence of events over the subsequent months that made me realize that some things I "knew" about America were apparently wrong.

Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won't change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the Democratic Party nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams.

We can all have a new kind of pride in our country.

Source

 

 

If you have not yet heard, Senator and soon-to-be President-Elect Barack Obama's beloved grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, transitioned yesterday, the day before the US elections.

It would be an understatement to declare she will be sorely missed. 

Let us remember that her life quite literally has and will continue to touch every single life on the planet.  The love, care and devotion to her children, grand children and great-grand children has already changed our planet.  Her energy and spirit lives on.

Please, take a few moments to sign a Guest Book at Legacy.com for the Dunham and Obama families.  Sympathy and prayers of love and healing are pouring in from all over the world.